Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act

On September 22, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) into law. Here are some important resources on this landmark legislation that you can share with others.

Holt v. Hobbs (2015):
A recent U.S. Supreme Court case involving RLUIPA is Holt v. Hobbs, in which an Arkansas prisoner challenged a rule prohibiting him from growing a half-inch beard that he believed his Islamic faith required. The BJC filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case defending the prisoner’s religious rights, and the Court unanimously ruled in his favor.

Here is a look back at the events that created a need for RLUIPA, how it came to be, and how it has been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court:-April 17, 1990: U.S. Supreme Court hands down a decision in Employment Division v. Smith declaring that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment does not prohibit neutral laws of general applicability that burden religious practice. This ruling contradicts decades of court precedent, creating a need for other laws explicitly protecting religious exercise.

-1993: Congress passes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, restoring the Free Exercise protections in the United States to the pre-Smith state. The House vote (May 11) was by voice, and there were only 3 votes against the measure in the Senate (October 27).

-June 25, 1997: The U.S. Supreme Court decides City of Boerne v. Flores, holding that RFRA is unconstitutional as applied to state and local laws and that Congress had exceeded its authority.

-July 27, 2000: On a voice vote, Congress passes the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, providing enhanced free exercise protections in two discrete areas of need: land use laws and persons in government custody (for example, prisoners).

-September 22, 2000: President Bill Clinton signs the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) into law.

-May 31, 2005: The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Cutter v. Wilkinson declares that Section 3 of RLUIPA — the provision protecting prisoners’ rights — is a permissible accommodation of religion that does not violate the Establishment Clause.

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About the BJC

The Baptist Joint Committee's mission is to defend and extend God-given religious liberty for all, furthering the Baptist heritage that champions the principle that religion must be freely exercised, neither advanced nor inhibited by government.

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Founded in 1936, the Baptist Joint Committee is the only faith-based agency devoted solely to religious liberty and the separation of church and state. The BJC protects the free exercise of religion and defends against its establishment by government.

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